Personal responsibility appeared to be the theme of the day during the panels at the Yahoo Finance’s cryptocurrency conference.
Speakers did not hesitate to pass on this cautionary message:
Do you research before investing any cryptocurrency, the audience was repeatedly warned. Especially if you don’t understand it.
Goodwin Procter LLP partner Grant Fondo expressed the message best, saying that “at some point, you may lose.”
“Things go up and down. Some people put everything into one project, and I think that’s a bad idea no matter how good an idea it seems,” Fondo was quoted as saying on a report published on Coindesk.
Another panelist, Chamber of Digital Commerce president Perianne Boring, outlined that from the perspective of greater control on the part of the investor.
Such control, she cautioned, brings with it the need for more research and critical thinking about where your finances is actually going.
She said:
“For the retail investor who wants to get involved in the blockchain ecosystem, whether through an [initial coin offering] or through other means, you really need to educate yourself. For the first time in, possibly, history, you can have control – but with that increased amount of control comes an increased amount of responsibility.”
The panel on which Boring and Fondo were on was one of a number that discussed a range of subjects, including regulation and investor demographics in the crypto space, as well as what tendencies may mold the coming months and years in terms of the tech’s trajectory.
As for what potential investors should be wary of, Blockstack’s Ryan Shea singled out one: Companies falsely claiming the mantle of decentralization through the use of blockchain.
“Watch out for faux decentralization, and faux blockchain, because we’re going to see some hybrids. But some companies are going to say ‘Oh yes, we’re decentralized and blockchain,’ but they’re not. Watch out for these.”
